What the House is calling a $2 billion transportation funding plan, Rep Daryl Metcalfe calls a gas tax increase.

View full sizeRep. RoseMarie Swanger, R-North Lebanon Twp., said the only part of the $2 billion House transportation plan she could support is an increase in the fines for certain traffic offenses. She joined nine other lawmakers at a Capitol news conference this morning to protest the push to increase taxes to make more money available for transportation projects.Jan Murphy/Pennlive

He insists that government already takes enough of people’s money and it’s just a matter of re-prioritizing how that money is used, along with making a few other changes.

“We need to pass things like prevailing wage reform so we can reduce the cost of roadwork. We need to sell the liquor stores so that we can use that money for road projects. It can be done without increasing taxes. Increasing taxes should not happen,” Metcalfe said at a morning Capitol news conference.

House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin acknowledged that there are divergent views about the proposal to generate $2 billion in new spending on transportation within the Republican caucus. And he said members are concerned about raising revenues of any kind for any purpose in the current economy. But he blamed the Democrats and former Gov. Ed Rendell for creating the need to address the issue.

They "did absolutely nothing for transportation except put it off and now Governor Corbett made it a priority," Miskin said.

Corbett has asked lawmakers to send him a transportation funding plan by June 30, along with a balanced budget, liquor privatization plan and pension reform.

But he confirmed that the plan, as it now stands, lacks the 102 votes needed to pass the chamber and leaders are working on ways to alter the bill to achieve the necessary support.

Metcalfe said he has heard lots of opposition from GOP lawmakers and citizens to the proposed increases in taxes and fees that Corbett and some lawmakers are calling for.

Meanwhile, Metcalfe said the majority of people he has heard from supporting the plan are the business owners and their employees who “are going to be feeding out of the trough it is filling.”

At the same time, he said those same business owners are asking him to oppose efforts to postpone the elimination of the state’s tax on business assets.

“The hypocrisy is outrageous,” Metcalfe said.

Joining him at the news conference on the day before the House is expected to begin debating possible changes to the plan that the House plan were nine other lawmakers. They took turns at the podium to lampoon the plan for various reasons. A popular one was the way it requires motorists to pay to subsidize mass-transit even more.

About 79 percent of the $2 billion the House plan raises would be devoted to roads and bridge repairs, while 16 percent would support mass transit agencies.

Democratic lawmakers have already signaled that they see mass-transit getting short-shrifted and will push for it to receive a bigger slice when the bill is debated on the House floor on Saturday.

Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford, made his point against giving mass-transit more money by rattling off the charges that people who own and operate cars pay: federal gas taxes, state gas taxes, inspection fees, vehicle registration fees, driver’s license fees, sales tax on their auto purchase, a tire tax, tax on their car lease, parking fees, parking tickets, tolls and traffic fees.

“People who ride mass transit pay for part of their bus fare. That’s it. They contribute nothing to roads and they contribute nothing to bridges,” Roae said. “They want people who own and operate cars to subsidize mass-transit riders even more. I’m not going to do it.”

Reps. RoseMarie Swanger, R-North Lebanon Twp., said she hears complaints from constituents about mass-transit buses in Lebanon County that travel around with only a few passengers aboard.

“I cannot in good conscience add to the cost of gasoline at the pump,” Swanger said.

However, she said the transportation plan’s call for increasing fines on certain traffic violations is one part of the House transportation plan she could support.

But Rep. Rick Saccone, R-Allegheny, said not him. He thinks it will lead to police officers not writing tickets because they don’t want to impose a burdensome fine on senior citizens and people struggling to make ends meet.

Rep. Stephen Bloom, R-North Middleton Twp., indicated there was no way he was supporting the House plan. He said government already takes too much of taxpayers' hard-earned money.

He said, “In a state that already has one of the most burdensome tax environments, a state that already spends nearly $7 billion a year on transportation, a state that spends the 11th highest amount on transportation compared to any other state and the 11th highest amount per-road mile, I find it hard to believe we’re being asked to consider an increase in taxation on our hard-working taxpayers and business people.”

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